Prepping for My Very First Market with In Line with Annemieke

As most of you will know I started my little Etsy shop In Line with Annemieke in October 2020. And as some of you will know, I have depression and anxiety. I’ve been hard at work in therapy to get a bit better. One of my goals is to take in more space for myself. To show who I am.

What better way to do that than go on a creative market with my little shop?

Yeah I know, I can’t believe I did this either. Since I got the email that I was accepted I have been anxious and have had a very full head with all the things to do. Because there is a lot to do that you might not think about. Adding that it is an outdoor market. But I am also very excited to stand there with my things and I’m trying not to let the bad thoughts get me down. And I made it. I was there.

I thought it would be interesting to share with you guys what I’ve been doing to prep for this in the last few weeks. I’ll just walk you through how I went about it. So here we go.

Making a Plan of Attack

One of the first things I did was read the blog post the market organizers had up on tips and tricks for your very first market. They shared a lot of things I didn’t nessecarily consider. Like because it being an outdoor market needing see through plastic to put over the table. Or cling film to block out wind coming from the side on windy days. Having carton on the ground so your feet don’t get cold (more so for the colder seasons I think but still).

They had a whole list of things to consider taking with you and I took over what I thought I needed. I checked to see what was more easily availble and things I thought would take more time. The things I thought would take more time I tried to arrange right away. Like the plastic against the rain. Since the market stall was quite broad I would need a big piece. My dad got it from a painter for me.

I also started searching on the internet on possible promotion materials. I ended up creating a smallish banner and 50 flyers for the day itself. I don’t think looking back I needed all those flyers since I have many left but I can still use them in the future. The banner was awesome though because people could read I sold bookmarks right away and it drew in some lookers that way.

After that I just started crafting.

Craft, Craft and Wrap

That is basically what I did. I just kept on creating things. I was so scared to not fill up the table I just kept creating new items on top of new items. Stickers, cards, book marks. I even made metal bookmarks. I shouldn’t have worried as much. You can’t put everything on the stall because overcrowding it doesn’t help sell anything. I know that now.

Very helpful cat

I also had to figure out how to wrap everything. Especially with covid, it is best to just wrap everything if possible. But then it also has to be appealing and it was hard to figure out what would work. I wanted to make most things myself because printing backing cards and the like is just expensive. And I don’t sell that much, lol. I tried out different things and ended up with different things for different items. And I think that worked. Or at least it worked for me.

How to Showcase a Market Stall

Another thing I really had to consider was how to display my products on the stall. Because it is not as easy as just putting it on there and done. One of the tips from the blog that mentioned earlier was to play with height so that things pop more. Which is easier said than done. I tried to find as much things in my own home or in the charity shop to keep the costs down for myself. But as I had mainly flat things this was a bit hard to accomplish.

I really struggled with the height as you can see. And looking back I could have done more with the sides of the stall as well. But now having done it I think that I have a clearer idea of things to do and things to look at.

The Last Week

The last week before the market I was all over the place. Wrapping, pricing and packing all the items. Especially the last minute wrapping and pricing took a lot of time.

And I am very specific so everything had to be priced. Also very last minute I decided to put up a few signs and ordered a few A4 holders for that I wasn’t sure would arrive on time. They did but gosh the anxiety.

I also had to design the papers to fit with my colors and stall which was hard. And then the computer/printer had a bit of a working problem and my anxiety was through the roof. It all worked out the end.

It didn’t get really real until I started packing up my car Friday afternoon though.

In the End

In the end I had fun though. I didn’t sell as much as I would have liked considering the rent for the market stand but for a first time I think it was a great experience. I also realized just how much of a niche I really have and that I have to find some more bookish markets to try out. I don’t know if that will happen this year though with covid. We shall see.

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